Ending old contracts was the best thing I ever did for getting new jobs.

Maybe this will be intuitive to some, but I'm a bit of a pack rat when it comes to holding on to Old contracts that have lulled into silence for months or even years at a time.

I've been on and off upwork since 2017 and recently got back into it as it's slow season for touring and I hit a doldrum.

Long story short, I had probably 15 old contracts that were still technically active even though no work was being done and there were no active milestones. Closing out those contracts must have signaled to upwork that my availability was now way up and also give the indicator that I was completing a ton of work because I've been getting tons of actually good leads and have started 4 new contracts this past week.

Obviously this advice doesn't apply if you are struggling to find your first contracts. I just went through all the old defunct active contracts and messaged the client first letting them know I was doing a bit of housekeeping and would be closing out the contract but if they ever wanted more work in the future I'd be happy to start a new one with them. A side benefit of this is people that have forgotten about you from years past get a nice little reminder.

TL;DR if you're having problems getting new contracts, make sure your old ones are closed out.